Fitbit announced two new wearables – a lower-cost smartwatch and a fitness tracker designed for children.

Versa watch
Versa is described as “the lightest metal smartwatch in the US”, with health and fitness features, and battery life of “four days plus”. It also supports a new dashboard which simplifies access to health and fitness data, with health capabilities including 24/7 heart rate tracking, onscreen workouts, and automatic sleep tracking.

“As the wearables category continues to grow, Fitbit Versa fills a critical need in the market by delivering a beautifully designed, full-featured smartwatch that is easy to use at a very competitive price,” said James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit.

The device is priced at $199.95 in the “presale” phase, with global retail availability from April 2018.

Fitbit also touted a Versa Special Edition supporting contactless payments for users in the Americas, priced $229.95.

The vendor announced new female health tracking, to help women monitor their menstrual cycle, view health data in one place and “better understand connections to their overall health”. In addition to Versa, it will be supported by the Ionic watch and Fitbit app users from Spring 2018.

Features of Versa enabled by Fitbit’s watch platform (Fitbit OS 2.0) will also be rolled out to Ionic owners.

Ace band
The Ace fitness band is “designed for kids ages eight and older”, and tracks steps, active minutes and sleep. It also has up to five days of battery life. Supported by a new Fitbit family account, parents can also control who their children connect with and safeguard privacy.

The vendor said World Health Organisation stats show childhood obesity rates are on the rise, with two thirds of children inactive every day.

Global retail availability of Ace is slated for the second quarter of 2018. It will cost $99.95.